USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Los Angeles from the mountains to the sea : with selected biography of actors and witnesses to the period of growth and achievement, Volume III > Part 47
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70
As a prominent business man Mr. Double met faithfully and grandly the numerous calls made upon his service and time for the good of Los Angeles as a community. He was a member of the representative busi- ness and civic organizations, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Union League Club, Jonathan Club, San Gabriel Valley Country Club, Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Order of Elks.
On January 4, 1899, at Santa Paula, California, Mr. Double married Miss Alice Harbard, who survives him. This union was blessed with one daughter, Helen Double, who is a student at the University of Wisconsin.
At the very height of his advancing career, while constructing and completing another great plant at Carnegie, near Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania, for manufacturing oil well tools and equipment for the export trade, he was suddenly claimed by death on May 27, 1920.
ELIAS HOWARD PARSONS, who died at his home in Pasadena, Jan- uary 24, 1920, was one of America's distinguished soldiers with a rec- ord of remarkable efficiency and gallantry in the Civil war, later in the regular army, and also in the period of the war with Spain and the Philippine insurrection and the Chinese Boxer rebellion. For several years he served as quartermaster of the Soldiers' Home at Sawtelle, California.
Captain Parsons, who was born at Worthington, Massachusetts, December 9, 1841, in his long life proved true to the high and hon- orable traditions of his family ancestry. The Parsons family came from London in 1630 and settled at Springfield, Massachusetts. Later they received a grant of land from the king, a portion of which is now Northampton, and a few years later Cornett Joseph Parsons, together with William Pinchon and others, bought land from the Indians and founded Northampton, Massachusetts. Cornett Joseph Parsons was the leading man in the colony and upon him devolved all the negotia- tions with the Indians. He also drafted rules by which the Indians were allowed to communicate with the colonists. One of these rules
770
LOS ANGELES
was that the visitor should refrain from liquor on the Sabbath day. The homestead of Isaac Parsons, the fourth, was standing until April, 1918, and after it had accumulated associations and history for two hundred and fifty years was torn down against the strenuous protests of several patriotic organizations, to make way for a city street. Cornett Joseph Parsons was not only a leader in that colony but also a representative at the state councils and a prominent churchman. The Parsons were intermarried with many other prominent Bay state families. Josiah Parsons, an uncle of the late Captain Parsons, married Mary Alden, a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden. Their second daughter com- pleted her education at Mount Holyoke, and at the commencement gave an address advocating a gymnasium for the institution. This address had a direct appeal, not usually found in college commencement essays or orations, and the effect was such that immediately following Gover- nor Andrews, the noted Civil war governor of Massachusetts, who was in the audience, arose and started a subscription list and the money was raised the same night. This marked a notable advance in the equipment of women's colleges in America. Up to that time physical training of womanhood with the aid of a gymnasium was unheard of. After her graduation, Miss Parsons established Painesville Seminary carrying out the ideas established at Mt. Holyoke by Mary Lyons, the founder. Later Miss Parsons became a missionary, was sent to Con- stantinople, and on her return became editor of the magazine "Wom- an's Work for Women," a post in which she remained twenty-five years. Two years before her resignation she made a trip around the world, visiting all the Presbyterian missions of the Orient. She and the late Captain Parsons were about the same age and in their relations were more like brother and sister than first cousins.
Elias Howard Parsons was a son of Maurice and Amanda (Clark) Parsons. His father was a Massachusetts farmer. His mother descend- ed from a line of prominent Massachusetts families. Captain Parsons was in the sixth generation of the Parsons family in America. He was one of nine sons, most of whom took up work and careers that made them pioneers. Three removed to New York state, one to Vermont and later to Illinois, two went to Iowa and all were school teachers. A younger sister was a talented teacher, and one of her scholars was Rus- sell Conwell. This boy was a son of poor parents and was what would now be called a "backward" pupil, but due to the patience and encourage- ment of Miss Parsons he got to a point where he could memorize, later studied for the law, made a distinguished record as a Union soldier, afterward was a brilliant newspaper man, and for many years has been a leading author, educator and minister, being founder and president of the Temple University at Philadelphia. Dr. Conwell in making plea for the backward child has many times referred to his own experience and acknowledged a deep debt of gratitude to Nancy Parsons. The Parsons family contains many brilliant names in the history of American law, ministry and other professions. Many years ago Theophilus Par- sons wrote "Parsons on Contracts," a work that has been revised and is still the standard on that subject.
Captain Elias H. Parsons attended school at Northampton, also Caznovia College in New York, and left college to go to Ohio and teach school. He was in that state when the war started and enlisted as a pri- vate in the 46th Ohio Infantry at the age of twenty years. When he first offered his services, and in July, 1861, he was rejected because
771
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
the quota was full. Disappointed but not discouraged he joined a company of men who hired a hall, bought their uniforms, secured the services of a drill master, and at their own expense equipped and trained themselves and offered their services to guard the Marietta Railroad. Captain Parsons entered the regular service in September, 1861, and was on duty practically without interruption until the close of the war. His first duty was as quartermaster-sergeant under Captain Emmanuel Giesy, who later became his father-in-law. In spite of his youth he was rapidly promoted, rose to the rank of Captain and assistant quarter- master of the 15th Army Corps, serving General Logan's staff. His duties as quartermaster had excused him from battle line, but he was a great favorite of his general, Charles C. Walcott, and upon his re- quest acted as aide to General Walcott and always accompanied him to the front. Thus he was on the firing line in thirty-six battles, including Vicksburg, Corinth, Shiloh, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea, the Siege of Savannah. He was many times mentioned for gallantry under fire and efficiency in handling his work. He was never wounded, never in the hospital, though he con- tracted camp diarrhea and that disease was the ultimate cause of his death. The army surgeon sent him home on a furlough for twenty days, but at the close he returned and rejoined his command in time to march to the sea with Sherman. At the age of twenty-two, after the battle of Griswold's Hill, near Atlanta, when the enemy had withdrawn and the troops had marched back to camp, he was directed to take charge of the ground on which there were not less than twenty-five hundred men lying either dead or wounded. He directed the placing of the wounded in ambulances and they were carried to Savannah with- out the loss of a single life. Captain Parsons was not only a man of undaunted physical courage, but had the mental makeup of a great or- ganizer and soldier. Later in the war he was ordered to Beaufort to secure transports, clothing and stores for the army, and had to antici- pate the point at which these supplies could be brought to the rapidly moving forces of Sherman. This point proved to be Morehead City, North Carolina, and he had the stores on hand when the army arrived. Later, after General Grant had arranged the terms of capitulation for General Lee, Captain Parsons was sent to Alexandria, Va., and Wash- ington, D. C., to secure supplies needed to refit Sherman's army and forage for eight thousand animals.
After this exacting career as a soldier he was mustered out July 25, 1865. General Logan offered him an appointment in the regular army, but he declined, in order to carry out a previous engagement for marriage and in order to settle down in life. After his marriage he lived on a farm near Lancaster, Ohio, for a time. Captain Parsons married Mary Augusta Giesy, daughter of Emmanuel and Harriet (Root) Giesy. Her mother was a descendant of the Bushnell family, prominent in American affairs as scholars, missionaries and educators, one Horace Bushnell having been president of Yale University, and another, Horace Bushnell, the blind fame missionary of Cincinnati, Ohio.
In January, 1867, Captain Parsons accepted an appointment from General Grant as first lieutenant in the 12th United States Infantry for duty during the reconstruction regime. This appointment was ten- dered to him solely upon the merits of his military record for efficiency and gallantry as shown by the official records on file in the War De- partment. He reported for garrison duty at Washington, later was sent
772
LOS ANGELES
to Darlington and Charleston, South Carolina, was also on registration and election duty in Virginia, and for a time was recruiting officer at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
In 1870 Captain Parsons, with many others, availed himself of the privilege offered by the War Department to go on "waiting orders" in the regular army, and in July of the following year went west to Utah. He was attracted to Utah by the opportunities for mining, and remained in that territory during a strenuous and critical time. In fact life was held very cheap at that time, and many men were marked for assassina- tion and quietly put out of the way by the Danite Band. Captain Parsons was not a man to be daunted by fear or threat, and his courageous bear- ing no doubt had much to do with insuring his safety. However, as a matter of protection he carried a cane, a gift from a sea captain, the handle of which concealed a long, slender dagger. At one time he was postmaster, and President Harrison appointed him United States Mar- shal for the territory of Utah. Acting in this capacity he had a promin- ent part in the round up of polygamists. For many years Captain Par- sons did an extensive ranching and stock raising business, owning a large ranch in Nevada, where he raised cattle, horses and sheep, buying and shipping to eastern markets.
At the beginning of the Spanish-American war he was appointed by President Mckinley as captain and quartermaster with headquarters in Virginia. He remained on duty throughout the Spanish-American war, the Philippine insurrection and the Boxer uprising in China.
Captain Parsons came to Sawtelle, California, acting as quarter- master in charge of the Soldiers' Home for two and a half years. Later he started an orange grove at Upland, and later still, exercising his soldier's rights, he homesteaded a hundred and sixty acres north of Rialto. Thus even in his advanced years he was still doing a pioneer work. In 1910 he performed the duties of taking the irrigation, edu- cational, and manufacturing census of Southern California. Captain Parsons built his home at Pasadena in 1913, and from that time until his death was practically arı invalid, suffering from his old trouble, camp diarrhea. He was a republican in politics, was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic, the Loyal Legion, the Union Veterans' Union and the Ex-Volunteer Officers' Association. His funeral serv- ice was preached in the First Presbyterian church of Pasadena. The regular church service was followed by the G. A. R. ritual conducted by local members of the Loyal Legion, the John F. Godfrey Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Ladies of the G. A. R. and Wom- an's Relief Corps. Captain Parson's ashes are interred at the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.
Captain Parsons is survived by his wife, Mary A. Parsons, and by four daughters and one son. The oldest, Mary Clark Parsons, is the widow of the late Dr. J. F. Millspaugh, who organized the public school system and was the first superintendent of schools of Salt Lake City, president of the Winona State Normal School in Minnesota, president of the Los Angeles State Normal School, and more recently dean of the Southern Branch of the University of California at Los Angeles. The second daughter, Katherine Bushnell Parsons, is the wife of Dr. Walter Prince Keene, an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy. Bertha is the wife of Harry Lyman Hibbard, who served as a chief electrician in the government service during the late war. The young- est daughter, Belle, is the wife of Johann Friedrich Clewe, a teacher
773
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
in one of the high schools of Los Angeles, whose father was one of the pioneers of California. The only son, Maurice Giesy Parsons, is con- nected as engineer with the great engineering corporation, the Lock- wood Green Company. He married Miss Louise Wells, of Brooklyn, whose parents were old Massachusetts pioneer stock.
B. H. DYAS. West of Chicago the largest sporting goods estab- lishment in the United States is the B. H. Dyas Company, a business · that is a monument to the enterprise of Mr. B. H. Dyas, who for over twenty years has been actively identified with the commercial and civic life of Los Angeles. His capacity for work, his dynamic energy, has helped to place Los Angeles in the proud position she bears among the great cities of the country.
Bernal H. Dyas was born in New York, May 20, 1883. When he was eight years of age his family moved to St. Louis, where he was a student in the grammar schools, and for two years attended Kirkwood Military Academy at St. Louis. At the age of fourteen he came to California. His first employment was as delivery boy with the William H. Hoegee Company of Los Angeles. As a reward for diligent effort he was put in charge of that firm's leading departments. Being ex- tremely active, possessing initiative, and having an interest in athletics of all kinds, he suggested to the firm that they enter the sporting goods business. This suggestion was acted upon, and under his personal supervision the department soon was one of the most successful of the firm.
However, Mr. Dyas was not content to work altogether for the other man. On the day he reached his majority he launched a sport- ing goods business of his own, the outgrowth of which is the firm that now bears his name, the B. H. Dyas Company.
Early in 1919 Mr. Dyas took a further step in the expansion of his business when he bought the great Los Angeles landmark known as the Ville de Paris, acquiring thereby the ownership of one of the largest department store buildings in Los Angeles. This store at Seventh and Olive streets is now the home of the B. H. Dyas Company. With a floor space of about twenty-one thousand square feet, Mr. Dyas has spared neither time, expense and the effort of thoughit on his own part and of skilled associates in creating an environment that is unique for sport- ing merchandise. The store has well been called "a sportsman's para- dise," and there is probably not a desire of the sporting fraternity which can not be readily satisfied by the Dyas Company. There is an entire department devoted to aviation furnishings, while all the older sports are of course generously represented. The store is even equipped with such innovations as a rifle range and handball court, and in one part of the store is built a rustic log cabin of logs taken from the Mariposa Grove. This cabin, 30x30 feet, is practically dedicated to sportsmen and sportsmen's organizations, and many of their meetings, both for- mal and informal, have been held there.
One interesting comment made by the Evening Express in the edi- torial columns following his purchase of the property on West Seventh Street should be noted: "In any event, then, the entrance of Bernal H. Dyas upon this field through the purchase of the Ville de Paris would be regarded as important, but there are circumstances and con- ditions that lend increased importance to this transaction.
"Mr. Dyas has spent the greater part of his life in Los Angeles. Still
774
LOS ANGELES
young, he has not only been the witness of, but a constant contributor to the city's growth. Every movement that had for its purpose the for- warding of the public interest has found in him, for twenty-five years, a steadfast supporter.
"Shrewd, enterprising, courageous and yet a keen analyst of con- ditions, thoroughly familiar with every circumstance affecting the city's prospects, it is the judgment of Mr. Dyas that the long waited turn in the tide is now at hand-the ebb is at an end, the flow sets inward. When one so capable of judging reaches that conclusion and backs his . careful judgment with his capital, the confidence he manifests is happily contagious. It diffuses itself throughout the community. Such examples tend to put an end to doubt and apprehension. New courage is given to others who but await the hour of opportunity themselves to act. Op- timism is healthfully stimulated and the pessimism bred of uncertainty hunts cover.
"This notable transaction well may be regarded as dating the revival of the brave, hopeful spirit to which Los Angeles owes everything it is and may yet become."
Mr. Dyas as a business man and citizen has formed many interest- ing connections and associations with his home city. He is a member of all the leading clubs, and a director of the Annandale Country Club. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, an officer in the Al Malaikah Tem- ple of the Mystic Shrine, and a member of other fraternal organizations. He has been on the Board of Management of the Y. M. C. A., and a member of the Personnel Board of the National War Work Council of the Los Angeles Y. M. C. A. He has served two years as a director of the Merchants and Manufacturers Association, and is an active member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. April 8, 1908, he married Nancy Rhodes Marsh, of Dayton, Ohio. He is the proud father of two boys, Bernal H. Dyas, Jr., born in 1911, and David Richard Dyas, born in 1916.
One of the most significant results of the great war was the gen- erous and enthusiastic manner in which successful business men and men of affairs responded to the call of their country and gave their services without stint, and frequently at a sacrifice, to upholding and promoting movements of pure patriotism. No one city or section of country had a monopoly on such men, but it is giving honor where honor is due to point them out and mention briefly their services which have been of a kind which the future generations may well respect and admire.
Mr. Dyas' part in promoting patriotic movements was distinguished by remarkable ability in connection with the most successful of Los Angeles' parades. As grand marshal of the Preparedness parade he handled the largest affair of the kind ever held on the Pacific Coast. Over sixty-three thousand people were in the line of march that day. Second to this was the Red Cross parade, of which he was also grand marshal, and in which forty thousand people marched. His success as grand marshal of the first, second and third Liberty Loan parades has been the cause of much favorable comment from officials and the public alike. As a fitting compliment to his work he was selected as grand marshal of the combined Red Cross, Knights of Columbus, Y. M. C. A. and other war workers parade held in November, 1918.
Because of his organizing ability he was appointed by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to handle the Allied War Exposition at Los Angeles. Through his earnest co-operation with the officials of
775
FROM THE MOUNTAINS TO THE SEA
that exposition Los Angeles was able to show the world that it had more than a passing interest in war activities. Admissions during the time the exposition was in Los Angeles totalled 195,094, a showing with which the Bureau of Expositions at Washington was more than fa- vorably surprised.
Mr. Dyas also ably handled the post exchange stores at various cantonments for the supplying of officers with their equipment. He has been very active in all civic affairs, especially so in the work per- taining to the raising of money for soldiers, sailors, Red Cross, Liberty Loans and in Thrift Stamp campaigns. The value of such a man in any community and nation is not easily overestimated and should not soon be forgotten.
MILTON E. GETZ is a native son of California. He received a thor- ough commercial training in San Francisco, and for the past seven years has been a resident of Los Angeles, and a well known banker.
He was born at San Francisco in 1879, and was educated in the public schools of that city. His father is president and a member of the firm of Getz Brothers & Company of San Francisco, one of the largest wholesale grocers and exporters on the Pacific Coast. Milton E. Getz entered his father's business at the age of seventeen, and remained actively in the business until the moving to Los Angeles. He is still vice president of the company. For two years he resided in the Orient looking after different branches of the concern, and he has acquired a broad knowledge of foreign trade conditions.
In February, 1908, Mr. Getz married the daughter of the late Kaspare Cohn, pioneer business man, banker and philanthropist of Los Angeles, who has separate mention in this work. In 1913 he moved to Los Angeles, and on July 1, 1914, helped to organize the Kaspare Cohn Commercial & Savings Bank, which later became the Union Bank & Trust Co., of Los Angeles. Mr. Getz and Mr. Ben R. Meyer con- trol the interests and activities of the bank.
Mr. Getz is a member of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, the Olympic Club of San Francisco, and other prominent social and business organi- zations.
WRIGHT M. COONEY is a well known Los Angeles lawyer. He 1 came here to begin practice thirteen years ago, and is also a gifted writer and author.
Mr. Cooney was born on a farm at Kenton, Ohio, in 1869, son of James and Catherine Cooney. His father was a very successful farmer and well known over Ohio as a breeder of draft horses. Wright M. Cooney acquired his early education in the local schools, and later en- tered the Cincinnati Law School, from which he graduated in 1894. Afterward he came to Los Angeles, had a general practice for a time, but is now employed exclusively as attorney by the Union Oil Company.
From early youth Mr. Cooney has been interested in human na- ture and particularly of those fine manifestations of character as be- trayed in the human physiognomy. He is author of published works on . human nature and the delineation of character by physical manifesta- tions, and is employed in the regular production of articles for syndicate publication on these subjects. Mr. Cooney is affiliated with the Masonic Order and Knights of Pythias fraternity. He married in 1898, at Ken- ton, Ohio, Maude Shaner. Their daughter, Marie, is a very talented young musician.
776
LOS ANGELES
JOHN JOSEPH FAY, JR. While John Joseph Fav, Jr., came to South- ern California after a successful business career in the east, he was never satisfied to be a retired business man, and as a matter of fact was one of the prominent bankers, oil men and public spirited citizens of Los Angeles for many years.
The outstanding feature of his record as a public man was the great service he performed as president of the Aqueduct Commission, an office to which he was appointed by Mayor Meredith P. Snyder of Los Angeles. One of the greatest pieces of engineering in the world, the aqueduct has brought untold benefit to Los Angeles, and the gratitude of this and subsequent generations is paid the men who were most influ- ential in carrying out the project. The commission presided over by Mr. Fay had the disbursement of twenty-three million dollars for the building of the Aqueduct, and in that office, as in everything else he undertook, he discharged his duties with complete honor and integrity.
Mr. Fay was born at Detroit, Michigan, in 1853. His father, John Joseph Fay, Sr., was a native of Dublin, Ireland, and located at Detroit when a young man. Then and in later years he was a wholesale grocery merchant. In 1854 he moved to Grand Rapids and in 1869 to Indianapolis, but after the death of his wife he returned to Detroit and lived with his son until his death on December 30, 1898. He mar- ried Catherine Wheeler, daughter of John Wheeler, of Philadelphia. They were the parents of four sons and one daughter: John J., Louis, Angelo, Frank and Catherine Fay.
John Joseph Fay, Jr., acquired a public school education and at an early age became a bookkeeper with the lumber firm of T. D. Stimson & Company. He became actively associated with Mr. T. D. Stim- son at Big Rapids, Michigan, in the early seventies, and for nearly twenty years was prominent in lumber circles in Michigan and the mid- dle west.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.